Premier League 2021-22: Manchester United 3-2 Tottenham Hotspur: 3 Factors which stood out in the match

Manchester United beat Tottenham Hotspur 3-2 in a highly entertaining Premier League match at Old Trafford on Saturday. The win propelled Manchester United to the fourth position in the league table with 50 points from 29 matches. Meanwhile, Tottenham Hotspur remain in seventh position with 45 points from 28 matches.

Cristiano Ronaldo scored the 59th hattrick of his career by scoring goals in the 12th, 38th and 81st minutes of the match. Ronaldo now has 807 goals in professional football, higher than anyone else.

Spurs equalized twice in the match, first through Harry Kane's penalty in the 35th minute and then Harry Maguire's own goal in the 72nd. However, it clearly wasn't enough for them to get any points from the game.

On that note, let’s take a look at the three factors that stood out in the match:

#1. Manchester United went ahead through Ronaldo’s brilliance but Tottenham Hotspur kept working hard

United interim manager Ralf Rangnick made five changes to the side that lost 1-4 to Manchester City last Sunday. Manchester United started with their customary 4-2-3-1 formation against Spurs.

Fred and Nemanja Matic started in the double pivot as Scott McTominay was injured. Meanwhile, Jadon Sancho and Marcus Rashford started on the left and right flanks respectively.

Ronaldo was the lone striker and Raphael Varane replaced Victor Lindelof in central defense. Moreover, Diogo Dalot started as the right back in place of Aaron Wan-Bissaka.

The match started with a high tempo and Ronaldo made his mark soon after. He got the ball from Fred outside the Tottenham Hotspur penalty box. He shot into the far corner of the net from 25 yards out, beating Hugo Lloris in the process. It was Ronaldo’s 805th goal in professional football and he equaled Joseph Bican’s record with it.

However, Tottenham Hotspur, who started with a defensive 3-4-3 formation, refused to surrender and took the attack to their opposition. While in possession, their formation often turned 3-6-1. Son Heung-Min troubled Manchester United with his darting runs through the left flank and inside-left channel.

In midfield, Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg and Rodrigo Bentancur kept winning the ball back and then passing it to the forwards. However, Fred was also imperious for Manchester United. He put in a commanding performance with timely blocks and deft passes.

#2 Tottenham Hotspur equalized but Manchester United went ahead again

Ronaldo shattered Josef Bican's record to become the highest goalscorer in professional football

Tottenham Hotspur dominated the ball-possession after falling behind and ended the first half with 55% of it. They kept playing probing passes to Son in the middle third. The Korean forward’s darting runs troubled the Manchester United defense.

However, Varane and Harry Maguire stayed deep for the majority of the match and did not allow too much free space for the Korean. Dalot also curbed his attacking instincts somewhat to stay back in his own half for the majority of the match.

Still, Son managed to dribble his way past the defenders occasionally. Matt Doherty also had a very good first half for Tottenham and kept making his overlapping runs repeatedly. Spurs' brilliant one-touch football set Ben Davies free inside the Manchester United penalty box for him to score. However, he was in an offside position before receiving the final pass.

On another occasion, Dalot made a goal-line clearance to prevent Eric Dier’s header from going inside. Dejan Kulusevski also grew in stature as the match progressed and played his part in earning a penalty for the visitors. He went past Sancho on the right flank and then delivered a cross that was stopped by Alex Telles with his hands. Kane made no mistake in scoring from the resultant penalty.

However, Spurs fell behind again soon after. Matic once again exhibited his underrated passing skills by finding Sancho near the Spurs' penalty box with a lofted pass. Sancho played a perfect cross from the left to Ronaldo, who tapped in to put the home side ahead yet again.

#3 The pulsating stuff continued in the second half as United emerged as the winners

Son was very impressive for the visitors

The second half continued to entertain the spectators with some end-to-end stuff. However, Manchester United were lacking the creative influence of Bruno Fernandes, who missed the match due to illness.

Paul Pogba started as no. 10, but could not make much of an impact. He was unable to play his trademark forward passes from an unusually advanced position. He was engaged in a battle with Hojbjerg and Bentancur in midfield and was well marked.

However, Pogba combined well with Fred, Sancho and Ronaldo to orchestrate Manchester United’s counter-attacking moves at times. The quartet often played one-touch passes between themselves to split open Tottenham Hotspur’s defense. Sancho was once again impressive and fed Ronaldo twice in favorable positions, but the Portuguese superstar’s shots were saved by Lloris.

For the visitors, Sergio Reguilon started making more overlapping runs through the left in the second half, but Doherty’s influence faded comparatively. One of Reguilon’s crosses led to the equalizer for Spurs as Maguire put the ball into his own net.

Rangnick replaced Matic with Edinson Cavani and Rashford with Anthony Elanga as United went 4-4-2 with Ronaldo and Cavani upfront. Ronaldo then leapt into the air to score with a perfect header from a Telles corner to score the 59th hat-trick of his career. Antonio Conte introduced Steven Bergwijn and Harry Winks, but they could not make a difference.